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Running Head: REV. THOMAS BRAY and PARISH LIBRARIES 1 Rev Running head: REV. THOMAS BRAY AND PARISH LIBRARIES 1 Rev. Thomas Bray and Parish Libraries in the American South: Philosophy, Theology and Practical Application René Radusky San José State University REV. THOMAS BRAY AND PARISH LIBRARIES 2 Abstract The example of Bray libraries provides the opportunity to understand how libraries evolve as expressions of a particular culture, and how the story of an institution is both reflective of–and embedded in–larger history related to geography. Rev. Thomas Bray was an English Anglican missionary who devoted his life to establishing parish libraries for ministerial use in England, Wales and the American colonies. His combination of missionary zeal and utilitarian view of practical knowledge found fertile cultural ground in the American southern colonies, where ministers needed books in order to spread the Gospel and a gentry class welcomed texts that would serve a rising professional class. He founded two missionary societies, charged in part to raise funds for new libraries and existing collections in the New World. Through this work, he influenced the first laws governing libraries on both sides of the Atlantic. One of his greatest achievements related to missionary work was the establishment of provincial libraries regulated by colonial state assemblies, and in part funded by provincial government. Bray’s libraries did not survive his death. In the end he was a foreigner using the resources of a colonial power to further an agenda, and was never able to provide for an infrastructure that would have given the colonists themselves a more vested interest in maintaining his vision. Keywords: Rev Thomas Bray, parish libraries, parochial libraries REV. THOMAS BRAY AND PARISH LIBRARIES 3 Introduction Rev. Thomas Bray was a 17th century British Anglican clergyman and missionary who is best known for founding parish libraries in England, Wales and the American colonies. He was highly successful in the American colonies of the south, leaving a particularly strong imprint on provincial Maryland. His evangelizing spirit led him to believe ministers needed to have a substantial amount of appropriate texts in order to spread the Gospel. His practical side viewed books as an incentive to convince struggling English ministers to leave the comforts of home for lands unknown. Although he only spent six months on colonial soil, he dedicated his life to establishing and collecting books for provincial, parish and layman’s libraries up and down the Atlantic coast. His work in the colonial south had deep roots in England, and the diversity represented in his colonial libraries was reflected in the libraries of his home country. Not surprisingly, his work was replicated through larger colonial efforts in Canada, the Caribbean and England. In addition to being a theological missionary, Rev. Bray was a practical man–a student of utilitarian theories of knowledge who considered learning for the sake of practical endeavor or leisurely gain, work pleasing to God. His theological and practical grounding found favor in the American colonial south, where Anglican settlers had little anti-British sentiment and were accustomed to having access to books for professional development and recreational use. As a product of English society, Bray understood the southern gentry as a reflection of the English gentleman, and was comfortable with stocking libraries for use by a rising professional class. Rev. Bray is well known for founding two missionary societies dedicated to spreading the gospel, in part through founding libraries and stocking existing collections. The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge was established shortly before Bray’s passage to Maryland in REV. THOMAS BRAY AND PARISH LIBRARIES 4 1700, and formalized some of the work he was already doing in England and the colonies. When Bray returned to England after his 6-month stay in Maryland he founded a voluntary association concentrating on missionary efforts in the New World, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Lands. These associations had wide impact on both sides of the Atlantic. They set the stage for the passage of the 1709 Parochial Libraries Act in England, which provided state control over ministerial collections, and widely influenced the establishment of the first laws overseeing libraries of the colonies. Studying Rev. Bray and his parish libraries provides particular insight into how the development of libraries can reflect on the larger history of the American colonial south. It provides the opportunity to understand how institutions evolve as expressions of particular cultures–how they are both embedded in these cultures and reflective of them. Bray’s libraries did not survive his death. They never took hold in the imagination of the settlers themselves, remaining somewhat of a foreign transplant overseen by a colonial mentality designed to further a particular agenda. A sense of transfer of ownership never occurred, despite the usefulness of the institutions, and welcome Rev. Bray’s work received. Background Rev. Thomas Bray was born in Marton, Shropshire in 1658, and died in London on February 15, 1730. He graduated from All Souls College, Oxford in 1678 and took a Master of Arts degree in 1693 from Hart Hall. After his ordination as a deacon in 1681, his preaching and writing skills brought him to the attention of the Anglican clerical hierarchy. His own writings show evidence that as early as 1695, he was involved in efforts to found libraries and supply books to existing collections in Maryland. By 1696, Henry Compton, Bishop of London appointed Bray as commissary for Maryland, supervisor of all clerical endeavors in the province. REV. THOMAS BRAY AND PARISH LIBRARIES 5 At the time of his appointment he did not know when he would travel to the New World, or how long he would remain there. Between 1696 and his departure for Maryland on January 1, 1700, Bray worked tirelessly on two projects: raising money to found and supply books to parish missionary libraries in the colonies, England and Wales, and interviewing candidates for appointment as missionary clergy. He was highly successful at the first task, but the second proved more difficult. He found that only destitute and less influential clergy were interested in making the difficult voyage–men who could most certainly never afford books. It was then that he realized that the haphazard fundraising methods that supplied collections to libraries at home and abroad–while successful– needed more structure. Thus was born the voluntary association known as the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. He returned to London on July 25, 1700 believing he could do more good from a base in England but assuming he would return at some point. He became too involved with projects at home, and never set foot on colonial soil again (Laugher, 1973). Upon his return to England, Bray continued his missionary work and emphasis on libraries, most specifically by founding the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Lands, which emphasized missionary work in the colonies. He maintained particularly close ties with Anglican missionaries based in Maryland, urging them to continue their work and following up with them on suggestions based on personal visitations he did during his six month stay (McCulloch, 1945a). He wrote prolifically, preached and devoted time and energy to the religious education of the youth in the parish he was assigned to. He was quite ill during the last seven years of his life, and his writings show evidence of a loss of enthusiasm for his libraries. REV. THOMAS BRAY AND PARISH LIBRARIES 6 Historical Context: Parochial Libraries of England and Wales In the colonies, Rev. Bray was responsible for establishing and collecting books for five provincial libraries, 38 parochial libraries, and 37 layman’s libraries. While the terms provincial library, parochial library, and layman’s library have accepted definitions, there was overlap in the functioning of each type of collection, and some confusion in the historical writings over their labeling. In short, provincial libraries are what were considered to be the first public libraries of the American colonial provinces. Parochial libraries were designed for personal ministerial use, although in some cases books were circulated and the collections contained books not entirely religious in nature. Parochial libraries are also referred to as parish libraries. Layman’s libraries, also known as lending libraries, were more specifically designed to be collections of practical books and tracts that while under the jurisdiction of a minister, were meant to serve members of his congregation (Laugher, 1973). These three types of libraries worked together to make books available to tens of thousands of colonists, tiding readers over until social libraries became the norm–all the while hastening the advent of public libraries. The story of colonial libraries of the American south is strongly rooted in the history of 17th century Europe, where Rev. Bray founded more than 61 parish libraries in England and Wales (Smith & Todd, 1808). The diversity represented in the colonial Bray libraries, and their overlap in functions are representative of–and can in part be attributed to–the historical individuality of English parish libraries. English parish libraries were a diverse lot “as these libraries can differ significantly in their provenance, their proposed and actual use, and their subsequent governance” (Gray & Baggs, 2000, p. 430). Parish libraries were many things in 17th century England. Some were for clergy use only. Others could be accessed by parishioners, but with no lending privileges. Some lent books to parishioners, but not members of the community. REV. THOMAS BRAY AND PARISH LIBRARIES 7 Other libraries lent to all. Some were founded as private, individual libraries with no intention of serving parishes, yet did so later by bequest. All this was going on in England alongside the development of what could be considered a radical institution: the book club.
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